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Rain tire could be modified for Cup
Goodyear says it could build suitable rain tire for premier series.
Weigh in with thoughts

Goodyear's new rain tire could be modified for Cup
Yet NASCAR has no plans to run a road race on wet track

Drivers ran the majority of last year's race at Montreal under wet conditions with only one accident.
"We were very happy. From torrential downpours to puddles and then a little bit of drying condition now and then, I thought the tires performed very well."


Glen postponement
Sunday's Cup event on the 2.45-mile road course was seconds from beginning -- until severe weather intervened.

NASCAR president Mike Helton publicly stated there were no plans in place to run a Sprint Cup road race on a wet track in the near future.

Goodyear officials said Sunday the Akron-based tire company would be equal to the task.

There's not that big a difference between the two cars and if you go back years ago, we did run them in Japan on the Cup cars.

Stucker said a number of factors go into the design of a NASCAR rain tire that can be used at a variety of road courses.
While Watkins Glen requires a tire that can handle faster corners, Montreal places an emphasis on cornering.

"If you were designing specifically for those tracks, it would probably lend itself to have a softer rain tire at Montreal than you'd have here," Stucker said. It has to be robust enough to handle here and Montreal.

NASCAR's experiment with rain tires was magnifique
NASCAR and Goodyear were prepared for the rain, and so were the fans.
To NASCAR's credit, for not having run races in the rain very often, they did a pretty good job. © Marcos Ambrose
http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/opinion/...index.html

Rain tires experiment gives NASCAR high hopes
One of the lessons learned by NASCAR in its first major foray into racing in the rain was judging the amount of water on the track.
I think everybody saw that the tires performed flawlessly in the rain. © Nationwide Series director Joe Balash
http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headline...index.html

Successful or not, rain tires aren't option for Cup -- yet
Pemberton: NASCAR will evaluate status for top series
Grooved rain tires made their debut in 2008 the Nationwide Series race.
http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headline...index.html

I think we'll always consider anything. Knowing now that we ran a race in the rain, I think we'll sit down as a group and discuss the potential of doing that and the nightmare of doing that and see if it's worth it or not.
© NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton


Making history
Ron Fellows put his name in the record books as the winner of NASCAR's first points race run on grooved Goodyear rain tires.

- Fellows wins on rain tires
Lack of vision due to Montreal's rain forced the race to end early.

- Aumann: Tires a success

- H2H: Rain tires all the time?

2008 race in Montreal was the first NASCAR points race run on rain tires.
Should NASCAR use rain tires on all tracks in the future?

- Experiment gives high hope

On the Cup side, if you do that, it has to be a situation where there is no other option. We could probably find another option, but it is a great opportunity in the Nationwide Series to try to learn from it.
© Dale Earnhardt Jr